Bruce Schulman

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Professional and prepared. Inspirational, stimulating, rigorous, substantive and, yes, entertaining. These are but some of the terms used by students and colleagues to describe Bruce Schulman, this year’s recipient of the Harvey L. Eby Award for the Art of Teaching. They create a picture of a teacher whose classes students willingly take and are challenged by. In fact, his classes are over-enrolled. Students follow him from course to course and scramble to get into his undergraduate seminars. As an advisor to graduate students, they compete to read or work as a teaching assistant for him.

Why such a demand for him? One student suggests, “To attend a Schulman lecture is to watch an artist at work. His organization, clarity and logic make the difficult process of writing a lecture seem effortless. It is impossible to witness a single lecture and not be impressed by Schulman’s ability to convey the drama of history, not correcting answers but correcting questions.”

Professor Schuman often dresses as a person of the era…or uses Jeopardy-like games where correct answers are rewarded by a book or candy bar. He engages his audience intellectually, making the subject come to life.

Bruce Schulman’s influences as a teacher reach beyond UCLA. He was chosen to lead the Prototypical History Project Institute for California history teachers. So successful was his leadership and his teaching that there are now both a history project site and a statewide leadership site for the California History Project.